From Backcountry Hunters & Anglers:
MISSOULA, Mont.—Backcountry Hunters & Anglers (BHA) is reinforcing its commitment to stopping the largest public land sell-off in modern U.S. history following a pivotal—yet temporary—development in the Senate. On Monday night, the Senate parliamentarian ruled that Sen. Mike Lee’s (R-UT) proposal to mandate the sale of up to 3 million acres of federal public lands cannot be included in the Republican-led budget reconciliation bill—a decision that momentarily halts its progress under current procedural rule.
However, Sen. Lee immediately confirmed he was actively rewriting his proposal in an attempt to revive the plan. The fight for America’s public lands is far from over.
“Senator Lee continues to follow a blind and tone-deaf ideology against an avalanche of opposition from his own constituents and a remarkable cross-section of individuals, businesses, and hunting, fishing, and conservation organizations,” said Patrick Berry, BHA President and CEO. “Sadly, Lee has promised to continue his insidious fight to sell these irreplaceable resources owned and cherished by all Americans, and we all have a responsibility to keep the pressure on until this battle is won.”
This update comes weeks after relentless grassroots advocacy led by BHA and supported by hunters, anglers, and public land owners across the country. As part of its United We Stand for Public Lands campaign, BHA has helped generate more than 97,000 calls and emails to the Senate to date—peaking at more than 14,000 actions in a single day. The effort builds on a similar grassroots surge that helped eliminate land sale language from the House version of the bill in May and continues to gain momentum ahead of BHA’s Flood the Lines Day, taking place June 25.
During this nationwide day of mobilization, BHA aims to generate 25,000 calls and emails to Senators within a single calendar day—marking one of the largest grassroots advocacy pushes in the organization’s history.
In addition to blocking the unprecedented public land sell-off, the Senate parliamentarian’s ruling also further eliminated a controversial provision that would have expedited development through some of the most wild landscapes remaining in North America. The Ambler Road Mandate—a requirement for the Department of the Interior to approve construction of the Ambler industrial mining road through critical habitat in Alaska, threatening caribou migration routes, hunting and fishing traditions, and more.
The budget reconciliation bill still includes targeted attacks on public lands strongly opposed by BHA, including mandatory new oil and gas leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and overturning protections for millions of acres of public lands in the Western Arctic.
“This ruling reinforces what we’ve said from the beginning: selling off our public lands through budget reconciliation is bad policy and poor process,” said Kaden McArthur, BHA Director of Policy and Government Relations. “Decisions regarding our shared lands deserve transparency, deliberation, and public input—not language airdropped into a complex and unrelated budget bill. We need to keep the pressure on to ensure this proposal doesn’t resurface through procedural shortcuts.”
To learn more and to get involved, visit https://www.backcountryhunters.org/take_action#/487.
Backcountry Hunters & Anglers seeks to ensure North America’s outdoor heritage of hunting and fishing in a natural setting, through education and work on behalf of wild public lands, waters, and wildlife. To learn more about issues important to BHA’s membership, visit https://www.backcountryhunters.org/our_issues.
Rack Camp 